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Why are so many African Americans going to vote for Trump? The same for Spanish speakers? And the women? We keep denigrating them!
How do women, immigrants or people of color vote for Trump? What is their reasoning?
Often, there is misunderstanding about the motivations of people who vote for him. They’re not all idiots. Why do you want to vote for the Republican candidate?
Before and after the provocative false statements in the September 10 debate about Haitian immigrants, many of you wondered how certain electorates could continue to want to vote for Donald Trump in November.
Immigrants, Spanish speakers, African-Americans: shouldn’t certain comments made by the presidential candidate put off these voters for good? Same questioning about the vote of women in favor of a man found guilty of having hidden the payment of a bribe to buy the silence of a former porn actress. This is the same man, as a reminder, caught saying “ grab them by the pussy » on a recording that caused a stir during the 2016 campaign.
The question that underlies all of these others is whether or not a voter’s demographic labels influence their vote.
“Yes, it is useful for explaining certain variances in voting choices,” immediately responds Ruth Dassonneville, professor of political science at the University of Montreal and researcher at CERIUM. These variables bring about “identities” which, in turn, bring out certain claims.
But the relationships between socio-demographic characteristics and electoral choices can be “more or less strong”, notes the expert. It is therefore “never 100%” that African-Americans will, for example, prefer the Democratic Party.
Hierarchy of identities
These labels “can conflict with other identities or other preferences,” continues M.me Dassonneville.
The rather conservative values of certain members of these communities can, for example, orient them towards the Republican Party and its positions on abortion or homosexual marriage.
This is also what several commentators are arguing on the airwaves of the conservative channel Fox News. The Democrats would be “disconnected” from Latin Americans, argues Pastor Samuel Rodriguez, regularly invited on television shows. This party’s position on abortion “disturbs” this community, particularly believers.
This is also what can influence the vote of certain women. The Women for Trump group has also made her one of the standard bearers of its interventions.
None of these groups, taken in their broadest definition, however, votes in majority for the Republicans. In particular, no more than 35% of women would want to vote for Trump, according to a recent survey by The 19tha media outlet specializing in gender issues.
Other factors to consider
There is also another divide which comes into conflict with the behavior of minorities, that linked to education, describes the professor: “The more we are educated – if we have gone to university, in particular – the more we tend to vote for progressive parties. »
In short, different considerations come into conflict and these groups therefore do not vote homogeneously. This is also what puzzles many specialists from different Latin American communities. “There is no such thing as a Latino vote,” wrote for example in The Atlantic Geraldo L. Cadava, historian at Northwestern University.
This famous electoral “sleeping giant” cannot in fact be reduced to a single contingent voting en bloc, argues the professor.
There is indeed a great diversity of communities across the country. Latinos in Arizona, some of whom were formerly without status. Cuban exiles in Miami. The Spanish speakers of South Texas, who have been Americans for eight generations.
In the same couple who enter the little “Latino” box in the census or surveys there can be two different opinions, as in a couple from Houston visited by Duty in 2020. The husband votes for Donald Trump: a businessman born in Honduras and American citizen for more than 20 years, he likes his image of success and wealth. She, more recently arrived from Colombia, said she was already fed up with his arrogance and sexism.
Economic appearances above all
“Economic attitudes” count for a lot, also says Ruth Dassonneville, who studies this aspect of electoral behavior.
“Racial minorities in the United States are economically disadvantaged and feel like it is the fault of those currently in power,” she explains. Donald Trump maintains that the economy will do better if he is elected, which may appeal to undecided ears.
Racial identity is therefore not always the most important factor: “An individual’s first need is to survive. People ask themselves: are things going well for me? Afterwards, you can think of something else,” concludes the expert.